(732) On the 5th of February, the committee appointed
to try the merits of the petition, reported it to
be frivolous and vexatious. Mr. Burke urged
the necessity of taking some step against the author
of it: but the subject was got rid of by a motion
for the order of the day.-E.

Letter 368 To Miss Agnes Berry.
Feb. 13, 1791. (page 474)

The following narrative, though only the termination
of a legend of ’which you know the foregoing
chapters, is too singular and too long to be added
to my letter; and therefore, though you will receive
two by the same post, you will not repine. In
short, the Gunninghiad is completed—­not
by a marriage, like other novels of the Minifies.(733)

Voici how the d`enouement happened. Another
supposed love-letter had come from the Marquis(734)
within these few weeks; which was so improbable, that
it raised more suspicions, and was more closely examined;
and thence was discovered to have been both altered
and interlined. On this the General sent all
the letters down to the Marquis;(735) desiring to
be certified of their authenticity, or the contrary.
I should tell you, that all this has happened since
the death of is sister; who kept up the high tone,
and said, her brother was not a man to be trifled with.
The Marquis immediately distinguished the two kinds;
owned the few letters that disclaimed all inclination
for Miss Charlemagne, disavowed the rest. Thence
fell the General’s wrath on his consort; of
which I have told you.

However, the General and his ducal brother-in-law
thought it expedient that Miss Charly’s character
should be cleared as far as possible; she still maintaining
the prodigious encouragement she had received from
the parents of her intended sposo. She was ordered
to draw up a narrative, which should be laid before
the Duke of Marlborough; and, if allowed by him, to
be shown for her vindication. She obeyed; and
her former assertions did not suffer by the new statement.
But one singular circumstance was added: she
confessed—­ingenuous maid!—­that,
though she had not been able to resist so dazzling
an offer, her heart was still her cousin’s,
the other Marquis.(736)

Well! this narrative, after being laid before a confidential
junto at Argyll-house, was sent to Blenheim by the
General, by his own groom. Judge of the astonishment
of the junto, when Carloman, almost as soon as was
possible, laid before them a short letter from the
Prince of Mindleheim(737) declaring how delighted
he and his Princess had been at their son’s having
made choice of so beautiful and amiable a virgin for
his bride; how greatly they had encouraged the match;
and how chagrined they were, that, from the lightness
and inconstancy of his temper, the proposed alliance
was quite at an end. This wonderful acquittal
of the damsel the groom deposed he had received in
half-an-hour after his arrival at Blenheim; and he
gave the most natural and unembarrassed account of
all the stages he had made, going and coming.